This car is also my daily driver so they're very reliable cars if they're well taken care of! Two years ago I went through and replaced the head gasket since it was original, water pump, oil cooler seals, belts, rollers, front main seal, cam seal, balance-shaft seals, and their collars. I even replaced both axles. So it was up to date on all the maintenance which is very important with any cars this age and honestly I'm not even sure I would try to do such a trip in any other car of this vintage.
I drove 14 hours some days and left the car idling in the desert while I went off and took pictures. I also had to deal with hours of sitting in LA traffic yet she never missed a beat! You'd be hard pressed to find any car that could have taken the abuse that I put this one through!
That said, everything works on this car including the A/C and cruise which I repaired before leaving. For the trip I only brought basic tools and made sure I had a electric pump for the spare tire.
The only issue that I had was from a few relays/fuses and the A/C belt broke outside Vegas. I think all of this was due to the heat. My phone didn't work most of the time and if I tried to charge it the fuse would blow. So bring plenty of fuses and spare relays of every kind especially fan relays if you're planning on using the A/C. I also brought a few homemade jumpers just in case. The wiring in these cars is fine but needs to be seriously upgraded to handle the heat out in the desert. Also the alternator belt didn't take well to the heat and the stress of running the A/C so bring spare belts. I had a spare belt in the car when I went to Florida last year but wasn't there when I needed it, luckily a local 944 owner in Vegas just happened to have one! That was the only time I needed any tools...
The rest of the trip was mostly uneventful. In Sub-100 degree weather my car sits at the first white line but out in the desert where it was nearly 120 it was at the third mark constantly. The heat coming off the asphalt felt like a 400 blast furnace hitting you in the face so you couldn't roll the windows down. With the A/C on it was still about 80 degrees inside since the system can only shed about 40 degrees off the outside temp. Running the A/C meant keeping a close eye on the temp gauge since it was very close to the red. Lots of signs out there tell you to turn off the A/C to avoid overheating since that heat from the condenser is being dumped in front of the radiator which is struggling enough with the extremely hot air coming off the road. I didn't over heat which says a lot about these cars since a lot of cars were broken down everywhere!
So if you have the chance, go through the cooling and electrical system and make sure its solid! Those seem to be the two weak spots and the desert will exploit them.
That said, everything went well. Again, Belts, fuses and relays are all you'll need it the car is in good shape. I planned on going to Europe next year but I had such a good time doing this I'm thinking about doing it again!
I'm currently making a few videos on the trip... they're not really about the trip but mostly just using the footage to make some short stories with different themes. Here's a trailer:
https://www.facebook.com/192753884577/videos/10157948472999578/